Georges Méliès
| image = File:Georges Melies.jpg | imagewidth = 225px | known aliases = Georges Melies; Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès | roles = | place of birth = Paris, France | gender = | year of birth = December 8th, 1861 | year of death = January 21st, 1938 | first appearance = A Trip to the Moon (1902) }} Georges Méliès, born Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker born in Paris on December 8th, 1861. Known for his innovative techniques in both form and execution, he is considered by many to be the very first science fiction film director as well as the forefather of modern special effects tecniques. Méliès was one of the first to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his films. Inspired by the camera work of Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1895, Georges Méliès began putting together his own projects the very next year. The earliest known example of Méliès' work was the 1896 short film Un petit diable. Between 1896 and 1913, Méliès created more than five-hundred film shorts, most of which no longer exist. Méliès' first work in the science fiction genre was in 1902 when he directed what is largely considered his most famous work, Le Voyage dans la Lune, translated as A Trip to the Moon. The movie was loosely based on the literary works of two masters of the genre, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, specifically, Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon and Wells' 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. A Trip to the Moon is best known for it's memorable scene featuring the Man in the Moon, whose right eye has been taken out by a space capsule. Later that year, Méliès made a three-minute sci-fi/fantasy film called The Man With the Rubber Head (L'homme à la tête de caoutchouc). The film featured a chemist who inflates the size of his own head through the use of a pair of bellows. To achieve this effect, Méliès superimposed a close-up shot of his own head overtop of the one filmed by the camera. Georges Méliès drew inspiration from the works of Jules Verne on two more occasions. In 1907, he directed the first adaptation of Verne's 1869 adventure novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. At least six different versions of this story have been adapted into film between 1907 and the present. Running only 18 minutes long, the film was hand-tinted frame by frame by female factory workers, making it one of the very first colorized movies. In 1912, he created Conquest of the Pole, which was roughley based on Verne's 1864 novel The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. It is notable for being one of the first films to show a race other than a normal Earth human. In 1913 Georges Méliès' film company was forced into bankruptcy by the large French and American studios and his company was bought out of receivership by Pathé Frères. Méliès did not grasp the value of his films, and with some 500 films recorded on cellulose, the French Army seized most of this stock to be melted down into boot heels during World War I. Many of the other films were sold to be recycled into new film. As a result many of his films do not exist today. Georges Méliès passed away in Paris, France on January 21st, 1938 at the age of 76. He was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Body of work Notes & Trivia * Appeared as a character in the 1998 HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. He was played by Turkish-born French actor, Tchéky Karyo. * In 1896, he directed Le Manoir du diable, one of the earliest examples of a horror movie. External Links * * * Georges Méliès at Wikipedia * Georges Méliès at the Horror House References Category:1861/Births Category:1938/Deaths Category:Luminaries of the genre